Motorists Face ‘New Normal’ in Gas Prices

The new normal for gasoline prices continues to plague American consumers, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

Over the last week, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. stabilized, down 1.4 cents to $3.462 a gallon after jumping nearly 6 cents a gallon the previous week, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of service stations.

But that’s 22.6% higher than the old record for this week of the year, which was an average of $2.823 a gallon set in 2007. For the same week in 2010, the U.S. average was $2.817.

Analysts say that world demand for refined fuels is keeping U.S. gasoline prices high, in part because the U.S. is exporting record amounts of fuel. In addition, U.S. refineries also are processing more diesel, at the expense of gasoline production, to meet that global demand.

U.S. drivers are poised to shatter the old record for gasoline spending of $449 billion in 2008 by shelling out an estimated $491 billion this year.

“It’s like we just can’t ever get a break,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst for PFGBest Research. “This has really been a bad year for fuel prices.”

There has been some hope that the end of hostilities in Libya might quickly bring down world oil prices, “but I just don’t see it happening,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, a website that tracks the prices of fuel.

Oil got a boost from signs of economic growth in the U.S. and Asia and from hopes that a solution to the European debt crisis was near.